2007 Michigan Football Recruiting Board

Be sure to read the official mgoblogrecruiting philosophy before committing suicide over anything you read here.

A Note on "Stars": These are my guesstimates. Players don't have stars associated with them yet. When the recruiting services add them I'll adjust my ratings.

A Note on Premium Info: No illict sharing of said material will appear on this site. Players are listed with interested schools in their profiles; this information is public. Commitments are by definition public. Any assertions as to schools in the mix, decision dates, or leaders I will back up with links to public information.

Update 1/9: Removed a fair number of commitments to other schools. Moved CA CB/S Michael Williams to committed. Added NBC's US Army Bowl "highlights" which are less highlights and more "every play." Michael Williams features intermittently, but they're under Mallett (and here: first quartersecond quarterthird quarterfourth quarter). You'll have to watch Mustachioed Non-Heisman Winner plug Sprint four times, but you can also get in the entire game in like 25 or 30 minutes, which is way less creepy and pedophiliac than watching it live. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. Game fallout: guy who looks like he walked right off the 1988 World Series of Poker set and into the Texarkana Gazett goes OMG Mallett; GBW gushes; ESPN says that Mallett is at least Clausen's equal($) but they aren't "in love" with any of this year's quarterback class -- they still lifted him from #54 to #12, though.

Meanwhile, three Michigan commits -- WR Toney Clemons, S Jerimy Finch, and C David Molk -- featured in another game that no one saw because it was on ESPNU. Scout has a recap. Sounds like Molk did well; Finch has been shooting up Rivals' -- the lone dissenter on his awesome talent -- board for a while now. He's #30 with a bullet in their latest top 100.

The Board

QuarterbackNeeds: Severe. Michigan has three scholarship quarterbacks and hasn't landed a blue-chipper since Henne three years ago. They will probably take two quarterbacks in this class unless someone like Mallet gets a Henson guarantee. Whoever comes in this year will redshirt and then compete for the starting job as a redshirt freshman.

Update: Mallett's commit likely takes us out of the running for all other highly-touted recruits, but I'll leave them on there until I hear otherwise. I'd think Michigan will attempt to pick up a second player for insurance purposes -- Stephen Threet?

Running Back / FullbackNeeds: Michigan had a definite need for a fullback that was taken care of early when Michigan's Vince Helmuth commited at junior day. In a class this large you can expect at least one running back even though Michigan has Grady, Simpson, Brown, and Minor in the last couple classes.

Projected Commits: 2, 1 RB, 1 FB.

Running Back

Commitments

Name

State

Stars

Schools

Notes

Vince Helmuth(FB)

d>MI

***

Michigan

Brother is former Spartan Chris Baker. AA News article. Saline Reporter article. Commited at junior day. Good at throwing things real far. MLive article; Free Press article; Jim__S: "If there was ever a prospect born to play fullback at Michigan, it's Helmuth. The position demands a hard-nosed, strong and relatively quick player who is happy to not carry the ball. The fact of the matter is that Helmuth doesn't even get many carries at Saline High. He has great bloodlines, being a half-brother of current NY Jet TE Chris Baker. He is a three-sport athlete and has great strength. He was the Division I state champion in the discus as a sophomore, a tough feat in the weight events for an underclassman, with a toss of 185-4 (Terrance Taylor inished second at 178-9. In the shot put he finished third with a put of 55-2 (Taylor finished just behind him in fourth followed by another talented Class of 2007 prospect, Darris Sawtelle, in fifth). Finally, at just 6-1 he is short enough to get the leverage needed to block out of the backfield in the Big Ten. If he grows a couple of inches he could become an outstanding DT or OG prospect."

Avery Horn

CA

***

Michigan

Wide ReceiverNeeds: Moderate. Expect two or three. Michigan has LaTerryal Savoy, Mario Manningham, Antonio Bass, and Greg Mathews in the last two classes--a good mix of speed merchants and towering possesion receivers--but should be in the mode of taking at least one receiver in every class.

Bonafide sleeper, a 6'6" tower who missed his junior year after a severe car accident. Scout article. Another.

Committed Elsewhere:

Tight EndNeeds: Severe. Michigan has redshirt freshman Carson Butler and then maybe '05 recruit Quintin Woods--though he could end up at defensive end--over the past two years. That's not enough. Fortunately, there appears to be a trio of instate prospects that will probably get offers sooner or later, plus Steve Paskorz, an early top 100 player from Pennsylvania.

Defensive TackleNeeds: Moderate to severe depending on the eventual fates of Marques Slocum (still trying to qualify) and Eugene Germany (still trying to outrun cops). Michigan picked up a couple of DT prospects (John Ferrara and Jason Kates) in 2005, but neither is highly regarded.

Projected Commits: 2.

Prospects

Name

State

Stars

Schools

Notes

--

--

--

--

--

Defensive EndNeeds: Minor to moderate, depending on where exac
tly Ferrara, Woods, and Adam Patterson end up. Three defensive ends--Van Alstyne, Biggs, and Woodley--graduate, so at least two players should be brought in to replace them.

LinebackerNeeds: Moderate. Michigan took four last year but could use another couple in '07 since they had only one in the previous class. The focus will be more on outside linebackers as both Brandon Graham and Cobrani Mixon look like potential MLBs.

Projected Commits: 2.

Linebacker

Commitments

Name

State

Stars

Schools

Notes

Austin Panter

KS

****

Michigan

A JUCO(!). Went to JUCO after being lightly recruited at a tiny 8-on-8 school and is a good student. Has three years to play two. MGoBlog on Panter. JUCO defensive POY. AA News article.

CornerbackNeeds: Desperate. Michigan has two California sleepers from the last two classes after Brandon Harrison's move to safety and Jai Eugene's decommitment. Michigan needs corners in both quality and quantity. Luckily, the 2007 class is loaded with both. Michigan may not have to leave the state to fill this position. Two instate blue-chippahs, Ron Johnson and Dionte Allen, have received offers and are expected to end up in the Maize and Blue sooner or later. A third, Cedric Everson from Detroit, is a track superstar who may get an offer over the summer.

SafetyNeeds: Moderate. Michigan picked up two in the last class, but Jonas Mouton may grow into an OLB. The year before that Michigan got shut out when Nic Harris made a last second 180 and went to Oklahoma. Michigan's already picked up (probable) four-star Artis Chambers; look for one or possibly two more.

KickersNeeds: None. Michigan redshirted punter Zoltan Mesko last year and recruited kicker Bryan Wright. Sam Buckman also came in as a preferred walk-on. No kickers will be offered scholarships this year.Projected Commits: 0, though if someone wants to walk on they'll take him.

Update 6/15: Linked to David Arnold article and a second -- dude is fast, plus one on commit Vince Helmuths further attempts to throw things really far. Removed SC LB Scotty Cooper (Clemson), S Marshall Jones (USC), CB Marcus Gilchrist (dropped us), OH S Sidney Glover (IU), NC RB Marcus Houston (NC). Linked to article on Mitchell Schwartz. Added MI WR James Rogers as a commit; also moved TX CB Troy Woolfolk to commit. There's very little on Rogers on the internet, but Michigan Elite football has a brief story and some video. Added IL DT Josh Brent. Linked to another one of those big ol' Fox Sports articles and an article on Toney Clemons.

Update 6/10: Added IL OL Dave Molk, who checks it towards the bottom of the Scout 100 and plans to cap for a day. There's also this fantastic, fantastic story. Linked to article on Dionte Allen (will camp) and Marshall Jones (M in top four). Removed Justin Trattou (ND) and John Ditto (PSU). Linked to large thing from Fox Sports that contains notes on MI WR Mark Dell and WI RB John Clay.

Update 5/4: Removed MI LB Chris Colasanti (PSU), added IL DE Martez Wilson, linked to Irish Eyes article with extensive passage on Joseph Barksdale. Linked to article on Brandon Saine -- more track zoomin' -- but it looks like he committed to OSU. Linked to article on OH CB Jordan Mabin, who says that Michigan is in his top three pending an offer. Moved Martell Webb to committed.

Update 4/28: Removed AL CB Phelon Jones(Miami), MI QB Justin Siller(dropped us), NY QB Mike Paulus (ditto, due to Mallett), and VA QB Peter Lalich (UVA). Moved Ryan Mallet to committed. Also linked to Texarkana Gazette article on his commitment, a second Gazette article, and an article on Josh Oglesby -- M in top six... er, then removed Oglesby after he committed to UW.

Update 4/5: Added OLs Lee Ziemba (AR) and Jaivorio Burkes (AZ). Linked to article on Brandon Saine's track exploits. Linked to Scout article on IN RB Darren Evans that claims a leader... Mississippi State? Uh, okay. Michigan still in it; no offer. Linked to note on SC LB Scotty Cooper that says he is going to make an unofficial visit to Michigan over spring break and brief Scout article on IN WR Adrien Robinson. Moved Ryan VanBergen to committed.

Not credible enough to add to the board, but some UV2 on Saine from the Bucks indicates that they aren't confident at all and expect him to be a Wolverine soon. His BP thread also has similar pessimism.

Linked to a large roundup article on Fox Sports with information on WI RB John Clay (UW #1 right now, Texas would be with an offer, still interested in Michigan), CA CB Michael Williams (Michigan and ND are his leaders), MI DT Joseph Barksdale (nothing new), MI OL Darris Sawtelle (leaders are M, Tenn, USC -- probably decides early), NJ LB Manny Abreu (claiming an offer from M -- added to the board).

Update 3/15: Linked to IL OL Miles Stroter article. Added FL OL James Wilson and MI TE Cameron Joplin. Linked to Josh Oglesby article that is sure to cause conniption fits. Linked to Toney Clemons article. Linked to Rivals piece with content on MI QBs Stephen Threet, DeMarcus Grady, and Justin Siller, plus an initial top five for NC WR and blue-chippah Greg Little that does not include Michigan. Added VA QB Pete Lalich, who has been offered. Added AL CB Phelon Jones.

Update 3/8: Linked to article on CA CB Michael Williams that says Michigan is in his top two. Added PA WR Toney Clemons. Linked to Scout article on MI LB Chris Colasanti and one on IN LB Jerimy Finch. Added MI TE Martell Webb, who has been offered. Linked to Scout article on IL RB Robert Hughes.

Update 3/3: Linked to UV on AZ OL Kris O'Dowd. In sum: his brother says OSU leads and that he didn't click with Michigan. The fact that "BigBroO'Dowd" hasn't ever posted before is a red flag, but he's made six coherent posts and I find it difficult to believe someone's spoofing the Buckeyes about an Arizona lineman. Call it UV3; I buy it.

Linked to article on Joseph Barksdale that also mentions his teammate Zach Easterly, who has been added. Linked to article on Dionte Allen: he's been offered by FSU and mentions a top two of FSU and Michigan.

2-star: Some guy saying something on some board that claims insider info due to a chance occurence.

3-star: Information from someone less established as an insider but a frequent poster who seems sane and useful.

4-star: recognized insider-type person with no ax to grind who has established his bonafides on past recruits.

5-star: actually verified by an article and a quote from the player, a family member, or a coach.

So. Cutoff is two stars... sometimes three. Played by feel. Anyway: three links to Unverified Voracity. Some guy says we're in good for Finch but not Evans from Warren Central: two stars. Semi-frequent BP poster unionfutura details the RoJo situation and lays out Michigan's advantages in full: three stars. Confirmed inside Colerain dude Honor & Glory says OSU leads for Clifford: four stars. In the future there will be denotations as follows:

UV: the information in sum(star rating).

Links will be provided so you can judge for yourself; posts that will fall into the memory hole will be copied for posterity.